Electromagnetic scattering by a dielectric sphere partially buried in a ground plane

Abstract

An analytic solution to the problem of electromagnetic wave scattering by a dielectric spherical scatterer residing or partially buried in an infinite, perfectly conducting ground plane is formulated in conjunction with the method of images. The solution to this problem is important in analyzing the scattering by dielectric complex three-dimensional bodies partially buried in a ground plane since these dielectric bodies can be simulated by dielectric spheres. Also the solution can be used to study the scattering by a rough surface. The incident wave is assumed to be a uniform electromagnetic plane wave of arbitrary angle of incidence. The method of images is applied to replace the partially buried dielectric scatterer by two overlapped dielectric scatterers of equal size, or by two touching dielectric spheres of equal size if the sphere is residing on the infinite ground plane, and a supplementary incident electromagnetic plane wave such that the boundary condition for the total electric field is satisfied at all points where the ground plane was located in the original problem. Numerical results are presented graphically for the normalized bistatic cross section at an arbitrary height (or depth) from the ground plane.